Production and dynamics of positrons in ultrahigh intensity laser-foil interactions

The electron-positron pair production accompanying interaction of a circularly polarized laser pulse with a foil is studied for laser intensities higher than 10(24) W cm(-2). The laser energy penetrates into the foil due to the effect of the relativistic hole-boring. It is demonstrated that the electron-positron plasma is produced as a result of quantum-electrodynamical cascading in the field of the incident and reflected laser light in front of the foil. The incident and reflected laser light make up the circularly polarized standing wave in the reference frame of the hole-boring front and the pair density peaks near the nodes and anti-nodes of the wave. A model based on the particle dynamics with radiation reaction effect near the magnetic nodes is developed. The model predictions are verified by three dimensional particle-in-cell Monte Carlo simulations. Published by AIP Publishing.